Birthday boys!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you might have expected, there are a TON of photos from today. We did not have any big party with other people over, we didn’t really decorate or have any kind of special meal. We just made the boys their birthday cake and had the traditional cake smashing fun. We let them open the couple of presents that they hadn’t already gotten in to.

All three of the boys got their deluxe spa treatment, that is nothing new! Brendan has a cool new singing duck to play with though.

Brendan played with his special Yo Gabba Gabba balloon.

We put all three boys through another photo session, slightly less complicated than the day before. They had to dress up in their coordinating funfetti tie dye shirts!

Cakes are done! They got lemon-lime Jello cakes with cool whip frosting.

We did birthday cake right after lunch today. It is when all of the babies were in the best mood and it gave time for tummies to settle before bed.

Trevor was going to eat the candle first

Brendan wasn’t sure what to make of all the mess!

Trevor loved the mess! He ate way too much cake, and is tossing and turning tonight in bed. He had such a sugar high this afternoon!

Caleb sat at the table and had his own little piece of cake with his big boy fork. He is much more grown up now, no mushing up cake mess!

If the messy pictures were not enough, here is the experience in a five minute long video.

The boys’ new toybox arrived while they were having cake! Trevor was all ready to try it out!

Caleb and Trevor are checking out the last of the wrapped packages

Brendan claims this package

Opening this one takes team effort!

The boys try out their new scooter!

Bill had the day off of work today to celebrate the boys’ birthday. But he took the opportunity to work on a special project for Brendan. He built a custom mount for an oxygen tank to attach to their fancy double jogger stroller. You almost don’t know it is there and it does not interfere with any of the storage areas. It is great!

Once the boys were tucked in to bed, I got a hair cut and had a piece of birthday cake. Time to go to bed! I think I will be hearing from Trevor a few times during the night.

This morning on the eve of his 1st birthday, Brendan woke up in his own bed in his own home with his family for the 183rd time. This is significant! He has slept 182 nights in a hospital, and this is the first time where the ratio has tipped in the right direction. Funny timing!

This is the last day of the first year of their lives, and I am so glad that I have kept up this blog to document the journey we have taken. I never thought I would be a blogger!

It was another busy day of too many babies! They are smart and trouble!

Trevor says, “Hey Caleb, look I got Mommy’s phone! What should we do?”

Watching videos

We played the “Happy Baby” song that Trevor loved to dance to in an earlier video. Obviously it did not touch Caleb the same way.

We had to make sure to get a picture of the boys with their Aunt Erin while she is here! Brendan can’t believe that he needs to sit for more pictures with Trevor!

Brendan thinks Trevor has the cutest little pinchable cheeks! He says, “Come on, Trevor, smile for the camera!”

Here’s a zoom of the last photo just because it is so hilarious.

Tired me and my not-so-baby baby boys!

We tried to take pictures of Trevor in his new jammies that he got for his bday. But he just wanted to dance!

Then there was the “Battle of the Tape”. The roll of tape was the item in play for the evening.

Gramma tried to sneak and take a picture after he was asleep, but he popped his eyes open right as the camera clicked!! Fortunately he went right back to sleep!

We are prepping for tomorrow’s celebration! mmmm caaaaaake!

I often have anywhere from 10 to 120 pictures to choose from for the blog each night. I pick only the best to post, although months later when I look back, I appreciate some of the “cuts” more. So with that in mind, I share some of my favorite “outtakes” from the portrait session yesterday!!

The last few days of the first year are here! We are trying to prep for a simple birthday celebration, but there is a lot that I wanted to do for their big #1 milestone. The time flies!

The cousins still had playtime in the water this morning. They both got out with prunes for fingers and toes, they would stay in the bath all day I think!

Trevor loves to lie back, float and relax

Gramma has to use every trick she knows to get Trevor’s fingernails trimmed!

Caleb was all ready to jump in and play in the tub with Brendan too!

Caleb was dropping his truck in the water and then saving it, Brendan is just fascinated with his hair!

Caleb just wants to play outside!

He just has to settle for running cars on the wood floor

One of the big big things on my birthday to-do list was portraits. I have taken a ton of pictures of the boys but they have all been snapshots. Brendan is not able to go to any kind of real portrait studio, so we did our best today to put together the cheesiest, silliest, most DIY home portrait setup in order to try to get some 1st birthday photos.

I am embarrassed to say how many shots the camera fired, but in the end I got some real keepers (even if they are far from pro quality!) Brendan was the easiest baby ever, he was just so cooperative and fun and photogenic. The other boys were just more… challenging!

Here’s the best of our “studio” session!